Unsung Melody
by Maphiko
Summary: It's not really that romantic. It's a "what if" Zidane never came back from Iifa Tree? What if he had died there? Please R&R.


"Unsung Melody"

By Sephiroth 4000

            _Author's Note: This is a "what if" fic, in that it's set in an alternate universe where Zidane never came back from the Iifa Tree after going back for Kuja.  Yes, that's right, he died there._

The night was quiet on Gaia, the two moons shining tranquilly down on the town of Alexandria.  All was still, except for a slender figure, garbed only in a thin white nightrobe.  She paused, for only moments, to trail her fingers lightly over her mother's monument, then continued to the pier.  
            The place, where she had truly, in her mind, metamorphasized from Princess to Queen.  
            Garnet was old; Garnet was tired.  It had been at least seventy years since Zidane had left her, seventy years of ruling and royalty.  As she moved, and the moonlight carressed her features, one could see that time had left very little physical damage.  Only a fine tracery of wrinkles marred her fair skin, and the silver that had onceonly frosted her bangs in thin streaks had eventually spread, until her head was as light in colour as her enemy, Kuja's had been.  
            And now she was as lonely as he had been. One by one, her comrades had died.  It couldn't have been more then thirty years since Steiner had passed on, Beatrix soon after.  Only Eiko lived on, Queen of Lindbulm.  
            A familiar ache tugged her heart as she once again remembered him. . .For years she had been angry, then bitter, then regretful, but in her heart she had always understood.  Zidane had always done what he felt was right.  
            She lifted her face, and let her voice rise gently over the calm lake, in a melody she had not sung for all those lonely years.  For before him, all it had been was a wordless refrain, that generations of daughters of Madain Sari had sung, the last remnant of her blood-mother, always summoning a vague feeling of safety and comfort.  Yet after him, the song had always bought her memories of _him_, of a quiet courtyard in Lindbulm, the joker in him stilled, with a look of peace and awe in his eyes. . .blue eyes, sparkling with laughter, mischief, and affection.  Her song.  Their song.  
            To lose him after everything, all those battles with Kuja, the Necron, the secret of his past which had nearly destroyed him. . .to lose him at the very end of it all. . .  
            She blinked back tears, and let her voice, as pure as it had been when she had been but a girl of sixteen, soar out over the waves, to mingle with their gentle lapping, and invade the restless dreams of a Genome sleeping under the docks. . .  
            He had no name.  No one had needed a name in Black Mage Village.  The mages went by numbers, while out of the Genomes, only Mikoto and the long dead Zidane and Kuja were named.  
            For a long time, he had simply stood by a stream in the village, struggling with the concept that all things changed in this no world.  Nothing was constant, and everything was different from one moment to the next.  In his soulessness, he could not understand it, much less accept it.  
            To the best of his knowledge, he had awakened about a "year" ago.  Something had pulled him to Alexandria, the same compulsion that had pulled him to the Iifa Tree a year ago.  He had fallen asleep from weariness there, and woke.  Awoke.  With his soul.  
            It had been odd seeing Alexandria.  Everything had felt familiar, but nothing was the same.  He even remembered the faces and names of people living there.  Yet he had never met them before in his entire short life.  
            And tonight. . .  
            That melody. . .  
            Redolent with wistful longing, and memories of events long past, all he could think of was a lovely dark haired girl, singing with all her heart.  Yet her eyes were filled with such sorrow, it nearly broke _his heart.  __Dagger.  
            And later, she had run off, his dagger clutched in her hand.  He had given chase, frightened out of his life for her, and because of her words.  __"Remember me the way I was. . . okay?" But then she had turned, smiling.  The recently cut strands of her hair had been released, flying on the breeze, carried by the wind past the damaged Summoning Sword. . .  
            He shook off the vivid dreams (__memories) expecting the singing to dissapate with them.  
            But it didn't.  
            Instead it continued, thin and lonely in the night, a bright ribbon of sound winding through the darkened streets.  
            Impossible to ignore.  
            As if in a dream, he followed the melody, swimming easily across the moat, shaking the water out of his hair; it rolled easily off his hard suit.  His feet knew the way, but instead of the singing growing louder, it softened, as if the singer grew weary.  Through moonlit gardens, through mysterious coridoors, he followed the trail of melody.  
            And then he found her.  
            Weary until death, she had sunk down, kneeling, still humming lightly.  Before his eyes, she sank further still, silvery hair falling to veil her face.  
            "Dagger!" he cried, and sprang to her side.  
            She looked up wearily.  Perhaps she though she was dreaming, or perhaps that she was indeed near death, for this vision of her dead beloved to come.  Whatever she though, there was no shock or anguish on her face, only joy.  "Zidane. . ." she murmured.  
            As well she might, for this specter of the past.  For the body was a Genome's body, near identical to that of her love's.  And the soul. . .the soul shining from the blue eyes was the same too.  
            As if that was all she had ever been waiting for, all those years, for one last look at him, she stilled in his arms, and he could feel her soul fly away on the wind, unfettered by joy.  She had Stopped.  
            He simply held her, eyes lost to tears and memories.  But they escaped him, not truly belonging to him anymore.  Eventually, all he could do was gaze on her serene face, and the wondrous smile still on her pale lips._

_Boo hoo. . .I'm sorry it's so soppy.  Not much storyline either.  Oh well.  All complaints to Sephiroth_4000@hotmail.com .  And you better review this!_


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